Monday

Ken Kesey once wrote that sometimes a great notion is conceived. After seeing the success of Homestead-Miami Speedway when progressive banking was added, Las Vegas Motor Speedway followed. To perform the task undertook a massive efforts and 10s of millions of dollars, but this glitzy track in the shadow of Sin City has gambling in its DNA. The results were an immediate success—enough so that if tearing up tracks and repaving them wasn’t so darned expensive, it could spark another round of follow the leader that would detract from its distinctiveness.

Can Matt Kenseth win three in a row to start the 2009 season? Before last year’s tangle with Jeff Gordon in the final laps, it would certainly seem so. He took back to back checkers in 2003/2004 and finished among the top five in two of his next three attempts there. The battle between the No. 17 and 24 last year took place at the head of the pack as well, which makes Kenseth a driver to watch closely this week.

With its glitzy charm and hollow facades, Las Vegas is the perfect place for Fox to cover a race and you can bet they are going to go all out with “Digger cams” and extra hairspray for Chris Myers this week. Their enthusiasm should make up for the loss of the Camping World Truck Series as only the Nationwide and Cup cars compete. If you are looking for something a little out of the ordinary (or if your wife grabs the remote control), check out NASCAR Angels on the Hallmark channel first thing Sunday morning.

PICK YOUR STORY: One way or another, fans were going to get a heck of a story last week. Kenseth eventually stole the headlines by winning the first two races of a season for the first time in more than a decade since Gordon performed the feat in 1997. The Rainbow Warrior did his dead-level best to keep that from happening, however, and had he won, he would have snapped a 42-race winless streak. If that were not enough, lying in wait in third was Kyle Busch, who was gunning for his third major league win during a weekend—an exploit that had never been accomplished in NASCAR’s history.

UPSTAGED: As good as the Kyle Busch story was last week, older brother Kurt has upstaged him so far in 2009. Anything can happen on the restrictor plate tracks, so the driver of the No. 2 was cautiously optimistic entering last week after finishing 10th at Daytona. He raced with the lead pack all night, however, and rarely fell out of the top five. And when the checkers waved, that is precisely where he found himself: in fifth.

THE LOWDOWN: The three drivers with the best overall record during the last three years at Vegas all ran into trouble last year. This takes on added significance because those three racers are also the ones who swept the top spots last week at Auto Club Speedway. Kenseth, Gordon and Kyle Busch entered last year’s Vegas race with seven top-fives between them and nine top-10s in the previous three events, but none of them finished in the top 10 that day. Want to make a side bet that doesn’t happen again this week?

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